Hosting Pulse on a Web Application Server

This topic explains how to host VMware Tanzu GemFire Pulse on a Web application server.

Host Pulse on a dedicated Web application server to make the Pulse application available at a consistent address, or to use SSL for accessing the Pulse application. When you host Pulse in this way, you also configure Pulse to connect to a specific locator or JMX Manager node for monitoring.

To host Pulse on a Web application server:

Set the http-service-port property to zero (-Dgemfire.http-service-port=0) when you start your Tanzu GemFire JMX Manager nodes. Setting this property to zero deactivates the embedded Web server for hosting the Pulse application.
Deploy the Pulse Web application to your application server. Tanzu GemFire installs the gemfire-pulse-n.n.n.war file (where n.n.n is a version number) in the tools/Pulse subdirectory of your Tanzu GemFire installation directory. Depending on your application server, you may need to copy the pulse.war file to a deployment directory or use a configuration tool to deploy the file.
Stop the Web application server and locate the Pulse configuration in the WEB-INF/classes subdirectory.

Edit pulse.properties, defining or redefining any of the following configuration properties as needed for your application:

Property Description

Property	Description
`pulse.useLocator`	Specify "true" to configure Pulse to connect to a Tanzu GemFire Locator member, or "false" to connect directly to a JMX Manager. When Pulse connects to a Tanzu GemFire locator, the locator provides the address and port of an available JMX Manager to use for monitoring the cluster. In most production deployments, you should connect Pulse to a locator instance; this allows Pulse to provide monitoring services using any available JMX Manager. If you specify "false," Pulse connects directly to a specific JMX Manager. If this manager is not available, the Pulse connection fails, even if another JMX Manager is available in the cluster.
`pulse.host`	Specify the DNS name or IP address of the Tanzu GemFire locator or JMX Manager machine to which Pulse should connect. You specify either a locator or JMX Manager address depending on how you configured the `pulse.useLocator` property.
`pulse.port`	Specify the port number of the Tanzu GemFire locator or the HTTP port number of the JMX Manager to which Pulse should connect. You specify either a locator or JMX Manager port depending on how you configured the `pulse.useLocator` property. If you configured `pulse.useLocator=false`, then `pulse.port` must correspond to the `http-service-port` setting of the JMX Manager.

pulse.useLocator

Specify "true" to configure Pulse to connect to a Tanzu GemFire Locator member, or "false" to connect directly to a JMX Manager.

When Pulse connects to a Tanzu GemFire locator, the locator provides the address and port of an available JMX Manager to use for monitoring the cluster. In most production deployments, you should connect Pulse to a locator instance; this allows Pulse to provide monitoring services using any available JMX Manager.

If you specify "false," Pulse connects directly to a specific JMX Manager. If this manager is not available, the Pulse connection fails, even if another JMX Manager is available in the cluster.

pulse.host Specify the DNS name or IP address of the Tanzu GemFire locator or JMX Manager machine to which Pulse should connect. You specify either a locator or JMX Manager address depending on how you configured the pulse.useLocator property.

pulse.port

Specify the port number of the Tanzu GemFire locator or the HTTP port number of the JMX Manager to which Pulse should connect. You specify either a locator or JMX Manager port depending on how you configured the pulse.useLocator property.

If you configured pulse.useLocator=false, then pulse.port must correspond to the http-service-port setting of the JMX Manager.

For example, with the default pulse.properties configuration, Pulse connects to the locator at port 10334 and accesses any available JMX Manager:

pulse.useLocator=true
pulse.host=localhost
pulse.port=10334

With this modified configuration, Pulse accesses only the JMX Manager instance at port 8080:

pulse.useLocator=false
pulse.host=jmxsrv.mycluster.com
pulse.port=8080

If a JMX manager or locator is configured to use SSL, you can configure Pulse to connect to these processes. Edit pulsesecurity.properties to un-comment the standard Java SSL properties:
```
javax.net.ssl.keyStore={KeyStorePath}
javax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword={KeyStorePassword}
javax.net.ssl.trustStore={TrustStorePath}
javax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword={TrustStorePassword}
```
Substitute the appropriate paths and passwords for the bracketed placeholders.
To change Pulse logging behavior, edit log4j2.xml in the same directory. The default configuration sets the logging level to INFO and specifies a message pattern that includes the date, name of the reporting logger, error level, name of the reporting thread, and the error message. Refer to the Apache Log4j documentation for details on how to specify log4j2.xml content and syntax.
Restart the Web application server.
Access the Pulse application using the address, port, and application URL that you configured in your Web application server. For example, with Tomcat the default URL is http://*address*:8080/pulse. Your application server provides options for configuring the address, port, and application name; substitute the correct items to access the deployed Pulse application.

Pulse connects to the locator or JMX Manager that you configured in the pulse.properties file, authenticating using the credentials that you configured in the file.
If you have configured authentication for the Pulse application, enter the username and password of a valid Pulse account in the login screen. Otherwise, enter the default “admin” in both fields. Click Sign In to continue.

See Configuring Pulse Authentication.
After you log in, Pulse displays the main cluster view for the distributed system to which it has connected. See Using Pulse Views.